Leaked pictures from inside the Palace Theatre show collapsed beams, masonry and plaster, as well as damage to an ornate ceiling.

And conservation group the Victorian Society, which has long raised concerns about the Palace Theatre, has described its current state as “shocking”.

In August The Herald cited the concerns of the Theatres Trust, which described the Union Street building as “a theatre building of outstanding architectural quality and one of Plymouth’s finest surviving Victorian buildings”.

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Inside the Palace Theatre - these recent pictures sent to Victorian Society suggest masonry and plaster is collapsing

Their architecture adviser Claire Appleby noted how the former Dance Academy remained in second place on the charity’s Theatres at Risk register, while it also featured on Historic England’s Buildings At Risk register.

And now the Victorian Society has weighed in with their grave concerns after being sent evidence of works apparently being carried out without consent, including cutting out large sections of ornate ceiling.

The images suggest that since the charity Great Opportunities [GO!] walked away from the project to renovate the building, it has increasingly suffered from the elements.

The Palace Theatre's Blue Room in its heyday

GO! pulled out of the multi-million pound renovation of the listed Victorian theatre in March this year.

Having initially claimed it would be “one of the biggest volunteer-led projects in the UK” by the early part of 2017 the charity blamed a four-fold cost in insurance and “attacks in the local press” for their problems.

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Tom Taylor, conservation adviser for the Victorian Society, said: “Looking through these photographs was difficult. It’s so frustrating to see this Grade II*-listed building continuing to fall into disrepair, when it was featured on our Top 10 Endangered Buildings list over four years ago.

“It even featured on the list prior to that in 2008, so it’s been almost 10 years with no substantial changes in its situation which is shocking.

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Sometime after 2015 the Blue Room ceiling appears to have been damaged

“Commitment to its restoration is long overdue, and we encourage the council to move past simply maintaining the building as a derelict shell and actually focus on its rebirth back into the community.”